California isn’t the first place most people think of in terms of the finest wines in the world. That reputation is still held by the vineyards of France and Italy. There are, however, some brands that are trying to shift that long-held perception.
Take Vérité Wine. Located in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains in Sonoma County, vigneron Pierre Seillan who has been crafting the set of fine wines in the region since 1998 sells their product for anything between $500 to $725 a bottle on average. A family-run business, it is currently owned by Jackson Family Wines, with Seillan’s daughter Hélène recently stepping into the role of assistant winemaker.
“We’re very lucky at Vérité that we’ve had consistent family ownership and consistent winemaking for over 25 years now, and we own our own vineyards,” Trey Christy, brand manager at Jackson Family Wines, told Retail Brew, adding that Pierre, who hails from France, spent decades producing wine in Bordeaux (and still does), blending French winemaking techniques into Vérité.
“He’s not trying to make Bordeaux in California, but that experience in Bordeaux, that true drive for balance in the wine, the tension of acids and tannins and fruits and non fruit complexities, all of these things that make a wine balanced when it’s young, and therefore, allow it to age the way that Bordeaux famously will age for decades,” Christy said. “He takes all that, he brings all that to the new world with him.”
While the meticulously crafted wines offer more in terms of quality, they also come with a hefty price tag, especially from the vintage category. Although neighboring regions like Napa are now selling wines that cost over $100 on average, Sonoma has yet to catch up.
Christy, however, insists that Vérité is profitable at the moment. “We are owned by Jackson Family Wines, which allows us to own our own vineyards,” he said. “Vérité is very much revenue positive. We’re not a drain on Jackson family lines.”
Unlike some other wines in Jackson Family Wines’s portfolio, such as the more affordable Kendall Jackson wines, Vérité positions itself as a highly collectible, luxury wine targeting a different demographic.
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“The people that are buying Vérité, people that are buying true luxury goods—whether that’s Cartier, whether that’s Patek Philippe, what have you—these are people that are somewhat insulated [from inflation], and they’re still living their lives, which is good to see,” he said.
Vérité also has a membership program that currently has ~1,700 active membership collectors who are notified about new vintage releases that are then automatically shipped to them.
“The collector of Vérité usually isn’t somebody who only collects California wines; you get some people that really gravitate to the big cult wines of Napa…But generally speaking, the Vérité collector buys the first growths of Bordeaux,” Christy said. “They have their cellars….They buy great champagne. They buy great burgundy, great wines from Piedmont, great wines from Tuscany, all over Italy. So it’s a much more worldly palate.”
Christy also explained how this network of collectors acquires Vérité wines.
“If you’re in Asia, or Australia, or even if you’re in the United States, and you’re buying Bordeaux, it was distributed by the negociants,” or wine merchants, he said. “We had this realization a little over 10 years ago that if we wanted to be in those collectors’ cellars, on their dining room table, next to the world’s great wines, we needed to be in that marketplace. So about a third is released to our direct consumer clients and collectors and about a third is released through what we call three-tier sales throughout the United States, and that’s how we wind up with Vérité on wine lists at some of the great restaurants throughout the country.” He added that 40% of Vérité productions are held back for “future releases” and “for posterity.”
But while Vérité has acquired a reputation among some collectors and continues to stay “revenue positive” per Christy, it still faces stiff competition from historic wineries in Europe. However, he said Vérité is not worried.
“The wine growers in France and Italy have had many hundreds of years of head start on us,” Christy said. “So we don’t hold that world bias against them. It’s been hard earned.”